The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-09-02
HENRY S. IVES & co.

HENRY S. IVES & co. :
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l entered it, though sign on the door
warned me that all information concerning
its inhabitants would be given in another part
of the building, and found myself i'll long,
narrow. high ceilinged room, three-fourths of
which was taken up with black walnut box
like counters, leaving only narrow aisle at
the side. At the end of this aisle is the pri-
vate room of the bank, and as I walked
towards it came suddenly upon three of tho
most talked of men in New York. Henry s.
Ives, the boy who has just failed for from
$4,000. 900 to $4,000, 900, stood talking with
his two partners, George H. Stayner and
Tom G. Doremus.
curious group it was. Stayner, short,
fat and pudgy, with very straight form,
pompous air, and with shake now and then
of his high white plug, wrinkled his brow into
a thousand corrugations as Ives apparently
laid down the plan of action to be pursued.
He assented to all that Ives said in fussy
way, and looked about restlessly with his dull
blue eyes as he did SO. He was the most un-
easy man of the group, and his behavior
formed a strange contrast to that of the two
boys who figured as his partners.
***
Tom Doremus, who stood beside him. is
one Of the handsomest young men in New
York He is six feet one inch in height. as
straight as an arrow, and his large frame is
smoothly padded with muscular flesh. He
looks older than Ives, and he is probably 30
years of age, though the papers have made
him younger. He dresses well and lives like
IL lord. He is the son of Professor r. Ogden
Doremus, whose signature as a chemist is
considered of value, and who is well known
in New York city. He is popular among the
boys, and he has entertained handsomely at
his summer residence at Whitestone, L. l..
where he has kept bachelors hall in great
style. Doremus has been brought into prom
inence by Ives. and / am told that ives and
Stayner bought his seat in the Stock Ex-
change, from whence, through Ives sharp
practice he was ousted. but was afterwards
'einstated Ives himself has not been in the
Stock Excliruge, and it Will be news to many
that the greater operators on the street are
not as rule members Jay Gould is not
member himself, and all of his big deals are
carried on through others. Doremus has
been in this case the Stock Exchange man of
the firm and it has been his business to stand
IN the Exchange and to prevent the falling
of the Ives stocks by buying them whenever
they fell below certain figure In this wav
the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton was
kept up, and Ives was enabled to borrow such
imm ,nse amounts of money upon it.
But as to Ives himself! The story of his
wonderful career is too well known to bear
repetition in detail Nothing like it has ever
appeared i'll the history of finance, and
generation later it will be one of the greatest
"reminiscences of the Wall street of the past.
Born i'll Litchfeld, CT, the son of an in
ternal revenue officer, he came to New York
eight years ago, then only 20 years of age,
and acted as bell boy for Harper Brothers.
He ran errands, took visitors over the build
ing, and deemed himself, doubt not, happy
when he became assistant advertising solicitor
and when he got salary of $40 week. He
stayed with Harpers three years, and left
them to take clerkship in brokers' Office
in Wall street. He left this broker for an
other, became mixed up in one or two sharp
speculations, and three years ago established
a banking house of his own. His ideas were
big. He dealt in millions and came within
an ace of riyaling Jay Gould. The $40 a
week bellboy of eight years ago, still under
30, now fails for from $15, ,O00, 600 to S2O, O,O0O,-
900. Stephen Girard left only $500, 600 as
the accumuIations Of his lifetime. George
charities and oil, did not reach
$40, 900, 600, and the men who are worth that
amount today can be counted upon your
fingers and toes.
Still Ives failed for this much when only %
years old The beardless boy clerk deals with
gray headed millionaires and outwits them
**A
This is the boy whom / saw talking with
Stayner and Doremus Let me describe him
rs he stood there i'll his shirt sleeves in his
private office with the weight OF this immense
failure upon him. At first glance he is in
taken for one of the clerks of his Of
ice. Slight in form, not over five feet eight
inches in height, his smooth skinned face
looks more boyish than his years, and his
only sign of age is in the gold spectacies which
rest upon his straight nose and the wires of
which lose themselves in the short, curly light
brown hair above his ears He keeps this
aair well combed, and there is very pretty
.url Just above his high and rather full fore
head. The parting of the hair is very distinct
md there is kink about it that makes you
,hink that he might be of the Israelitish per-
;uasion. He has not, / think, however, any
Jewish blood in hina, and his general appear
snce is that of the simon pure intellectual
Yankee. He is good looking, ON the whole.
md as to his features, the artist who was with
ne when saw him tells me they are in ex- 4
,elent proportion, and his face would do for
. fashion plate. Every line about it is clean
nut. The nose is straight, with the slightest
Inclination to the retrousse, and the nostrils
hin and sensitive The lips are rather thin
han thick, and there Is slight curl about
lie upper one which makes Mr.. Ives face the
,ersoniied expression of self confidence.
There is nothing conceited about it, but as he
alked every line about his mouth spoke right
mt, and seemed to say. ave got the cards in
nv hands and you may say what you pleased"
{ is doubtful indeed whether Ives holds such
ards. but he shows no signs Of trouble as TO
is future.
His face has no lines OF weaknesses. and its
trength grows upon you. He has. so one CT
he leading brokers of the street tells me, no
ad habits, does not drink nor smoke to ex-
ess and is not a fool in any way.
Said this man:
elves is as commonplace fellow as you will
nd anywhere If he is down town he will
rop In at lunch counter and eat thirty
ent lunch with clerks and brokers, making
o more ado about it than he did when he 4
ras a clerk himself. He viii dine at Del
,onico,s the same evening. perhaps, with
lillionaires, and the cost of the dinner may
an into the hundreds. He is as much at
ONE there as he was at the lunch counter,
nd he never loses his head. Il
aIyes has, this man went on, sthe most
tonderful self confidence OF any man have
rer known. He is the most plausible Of men,
s,ss;ua q hia 1f,r fefuess he has "